Dream It. Build It. Change the World.
The 2026 Create the Future Design Contest is now open for entries! Submit your game-changing new product ideas for a chance at the $25,000 grand prize. $50,000 in total prize value. Get started today.
Help build a better tomorrow
Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 16,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas in our 2026 contest.
Read About All the 2025 Winning Inventions
Special Report spotlights the eight amazing winners in 2025 as well as honorable mentions in each category, plus the top ten most popular entries as voted by our community.
Click here to read moreThank you from our Sponsors
“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”
— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.
“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”
— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics
contest/2011
2011
This is a sonic device that creates a standing wave field in any type of semi reflective space. It can be instrumented to turn into an intrusion detection system. Working prototypes have been built.
When a tone is played in a room, it fills up with standing waves. If a person, sitting in the room,
The College Park Industries iPecs® (Intelligent Prosthetic Endo-Skeletal Component System) is a medical research device which will provide researchers a tool to accurately measure human locomotion or gait parameters on users of lower limb prostheses. The iPecs measures forces and torsion-moments which can then be wirelessly transmitted in real time, to a PC interface.
To make a super-efficient environmentally-friendly engine, one would like to utilize two processes where the waste of the first process becomes the fuel of the second process.
A gas turbine is highly efficient because it burns fuel at high temperatures and because it maintains a constant speed at its most fuel efficient velocity. Because of this,
This is a system for using the ubiquitous televison receiver, presently those models equipped with a remote control, as an emergency early warning and information supply device. When Authorities (1) (either local, national, or international), notify any or all TV station(s)(2),
Safety in small aircraft has been an issue since the beginning of flight, especially for lightweight engine powered personal airplanes also known as ultralight/microlight aircrafts. Currently these ultralights are rapidly transforming into high performance aircraft for recreational use with a very respectable speed and range. Electric powered ultralights have started to replace gasoline engines for these small aircraft,
My idea is restructuring liquid crystals to have controllable photovoltaic properties. This can cause desirable effects, and could also make photovoltaics much more practical for household use. The panels are designed to exhibit photovoltaic properties when a small voltage is applied from a separate power source, darkening the glass, while also causing the structure to exhibit photovoltaics.
A major environmental issue today concerns the effects of automobile pollution and efficiency. Recycling lost energy, increasing fuel economy, and protecting air quality are areas in which a vehicle could be improved. Engine combustion of gasoline creates excess heat energy which the radiator disperses into the atmosphere.
Active firearm safeties have not became a reality because of a limitation in technology. The ability to transmit signals a short distance can be done with IR, RF, sonic and visible light even in a very small size. So an authentication key, ring, badge,
The device functions on the principles of quantum physics and wave destructive interference. It creates a counter shock wave through the use of sensors, reactive armor, and composite armor. We know from physics that a vector is a force with a magnitude and direction.
When a mine or IED explodes beneath the vehicle,
Original Concept by Dr. Kuang Y. Wu
Art and Design by Kimberly Tsai
After the wake of the tsunami and hurricane natural disasters, my uncle Kuang Wu presented to me an idea to help save lives in such situations. His idea was using a perfect sphere to protect people from danger and help save lives. After several designs and concepts,
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